Two Sides Of The Same Coin; Hiroshi And The Deviant Killer.

My scream doesn't even have time to escape my lips as the bombs all go off at once. Everyone around me is blown back as I manage to get my guard up just before the air pressure reaches me.

"God damnnit Asya!" I yell as the underground starts to collapse around me. I have to find a way out of here. I need to get to the surface. If I can just get away from the soldiers I can get away from here. I have a boat docked at a pier a couple of miles from here, if I can get on it I can regroup and come up with another plan.

I start to look around me and I can see the soldiers are starting to regroup. I can feel my heart rate pick up as I can for a way out of here. The elevators are either out or they're probably rigged with explosives. My suspicions are confirmed when I hear the elevator start to creak and explode shortly after the door closes.

The force from the explosion sends me crashing into the ground as I hear gunfire start to go off. They're killing off the kids. So much for giving the Deviant kids immunity. That disgusts me, Even though they're children in their eyes they're still Deviants. I quickly pick myself up off of the ground and I start to climb up a wall. I jump from building to building looking for a way out as the gunfire starts to be aimed at me.

"Shoot! Shoot! Don't let the Hybrid Killer getaway!" I hear Captain Evans yell from down below. I ignore his yells as I find a manhole cover. I run up one of the pillars and I push it open. I can feel the rain hit the top of my head as I pull myself out of the manhole cover. I quickly throw my hood over my head as I put the cover back.

I can still hear the screams of the children and other people down in the Underground as I start to blend in with the crowd. The best thing I can do to get away is just blended in until I can find the pier.

"Hey, have you heard what's going on?"

"Yeah. It seems like the governments' found another one of those Deviant hideouts."

"Deviants in this city? What the hell is the world coming to?"

I try my best to keep my mouth shut as I continue to walk through the crowd. If anyone notices that I'm a Deviant then it's game over for me. I walk a couple more blocks undetected until I finally reach the alleyway that'll take me to the pier where my boat is. As I turn into the alleyway I'm immediately surrounded by a group of soldiers. They all have their guns aimed at me as I put my hands into the air.

"Wow. Two for two. You guys are on a roll today." I say laughing as I turn around. "I'm guessing you guys knew about the boat too."

No one speaks as I look all around me.

"I don't have a remote or bomb on me if that's what you guys are afraid of. To be honest that was my only way out of this city." I say shaking my head. "Damn. You guys really don't know when to quit while you're ahead." I say as I put my arms down.

"Put your hands back up where I can see them Hiroshi!" One of the soldiers yells at me. "I won't ask you again!"

"And what if I don't? What're you gonna do? Shoot me? I ask him. "I've been running away from you guys long enough to know that you don't have orders to kill me. If that were the case you would've done it while my back was turned."

I can hear the footsteps of a soldier come from behind me as I turn around once again. This one is different. He isn't holding any sort of weapon in his hand, and he has a long red sleeve going down his right arm signifying him as a high-class Hybrid in the government's military. Just my luck.

"Let me guess. You're here to take me in right?" I say yawning.

"Those were the orders that I was given but I'm going, to be honest with you. I'm done letting you run free and do what you want." He says to me. "I don't care if I'm going against a direct order from the Captain. I'm going to be the one to kill you right here and now Hybrid Killer." He says as he takes off all of the armor on his chest.

He's leaving his entire upper body exposed as he gets into a fighting stance.

"You have too much of my brother's blood on your hands. I can not let you live knowing what you've done."

"So what is this?" I ask him. "Is this like your big stand? I'm guessing you've been waiting a long time just for this moment, haven't you? To finally come face to face with the person who's been responsible for so much of your despair and pain. Well, I hate to break it to you, but if you really decide to fight me now, it won't go like you think it will. I can promise you that. So think about this before you decide to throw your life away." I say to him.

I can feel the tension in the air start to rise as both of us stare at one another for a little bit. I can immediately tell that he's waiting on me to make the first move, is it because he's afraid or is it a strategy of his. Whatever the case maybe I won't give him the satisfaction of doing so. I've built my reputation on the back of the Government not knowing what any of my abilities are. If your opponent knows what your ability is beforehand you might as well not even fight.

"No one has ever been able to figure out how your ability works, but I'll be the one to not only figure it out, but I'll kill you in the process as well. I'll be looking at as a hero, and thankfully another Deviant will be off the streets." He spits at me. "I'm not running away or backing down! You either live up to your name right here and now or you sit back and let me snap your neck. Your choice."

I sigh deeply as I take my hood off of my head. I look at him directly in his eyes as he starts to laugh at me.

"Two different colored eyes. Disgusting, but just what I would expect from someone who kills the people who're trying to keep this planet safe." He says to me. I chuckle a bit as I stretch my legs out.

"What's your name kid? Someone with a mouth like yours deserves to be remembered. I've heard this holier than thou shit all before but it's always been while someone has been behind the barrel of a gun, never while they were staring death in the face." I say to him.

"My name is irrelevant." He says as he starts running towards me with his fist raised at me.

"Eh, you're probably right about that," I say as I notice the skin on his fist starting to turn into steel. My eyes both start glowing as the same thing starts to happen to my fist. The sound of metal scraping together fills the air as sparks fly everywhere. The group of soldiers all back away as I start laughing.

"You know Irrelevant. Turning your body to metal isn't too bad. My arm feels a little heavy, but nothing I can't get used to." I say as I square up with him. Metal starts to cover my entire body as he rushes at me again.

He throws a barrage of hooks and jabs at me as I dodge his attacks with little effort.

"It's all the same with you guys," I say as I ram my fist into his gut. The metal on his skin starts to crack a bit as he cries out in pain. "You all think that you're going to be the one to kill me," I say as I uppercut him.

A couple of his teeth go flying out of his mouth as I punch him in his chest. He goes crashing into the side of a building as I rush at him. I ram my fist into his face as he lets out a cry of pain. I grab him by his face, pick him up and I slam him into the ground as the ground cracks underneath the both of us.

"But you guys just don't learn," I say as I pick him up off of the ground by his neck. He throws a punch aimed at my face but I catch it with my right hand. I crush his fist under my hand as he cries out in pain again.

"You shouldn't have done that," I say as I shake my head. My eyes start to glow again as the metal on his body starts to immediately retract.

"If you haven't already guessed by now my first ability is obviously to copy the abilities of others. But my second one is the one that'll get you killed."

I can see fear starting to spread across his face as he figures out what my second ability is.

"You can- you can- cancel out other abilities can't you!?" He asks me. I nod my head yes as I raise my fist to him.

"Without your metal skin protecting you from my blows splitting your skull open will be just as easy as cracking an egg!" I yell as I ram my fist into his skull. His head explodes immediately as bits and pieces of his brain and skull fly everywhere. I can hear everyone gasp loudly as I drop his body onto the ground.

"He's a monster! He's a monster! Kill him!" One of the soldiers yells as he aims his gun at me. But before he even has a chance to pull the trigger I'm immediately behind him with my hand placed on his forehead and chin.

"So I guess the five of you want to die next?! That's fine with me!" I yell as I snap the soldier's neck. All five of them immediately start to shoot at me as I duck and dodge all of the bullets. I blitz one soldier and I slam my fist into his chest.

My fist comes out his back as I pick him up and slam him into the ground. Three more to go. One of the soldiers puts a double-barreled shotgun to the back of my head but before he has time to fire off the shot I reach back and I crush the barrels of the shotgun underneath my hand. I quickly turn around, grab him by his throat and I use him as a shield to take all of the gunfire as I run-up to another soldier.

He pulls out a knife and he slashes at my face but I use my human shield to protect me and I throw them into one another. Both of them fall onto the ground as I feel a couple of bullets ricochet off of my back. The last of the soldiers fires a barrage of bullets at me as I walk up to him. I can see the fear in his eyes starting to grow as I grab the pistol and I crush the barrel under my hand. I grab his wrist and I snap it. He drops his gun but he doesn't stop fighting. He swings at my face but I don't try to dodge his attack. When his fist makes contact with my face I can hear the bones in his hand shatter as he cries out in pain. I grab him by his throat and I crush his windpipe underneath my hand.

I turn back to the other two soldiers who are starting to run away, but I don't let them get very far. Before they even have a chance to start climbing the gate leading to the pier I appear right in front of them with my arms folded across my chest.

"So. Do you guys have any last words before I rip your spines out?" I ask them.

"Please! Please! Don't kill us! We won't say tell anyone what happened here!"

"Yeah! We promise! We won't even tell anyone about your abilities! We promise to keep our mouths shut!"

I close my eyes and I nod my head after a little while.

"You guys can go on ahead. On one condition. You need to be out of my sights in the next three seconds." I say to them. Both of them hesitate for a bit before they start running. "One, two, three. Times up."

I start to run after them and before they even have the chance to react I ram my fists into their back and I rip both of their spines out from their backs. Blood squirts everywhere as both of their bodies collapse onto the ground. I drop their spines on top of their body as I allow the rain to wash the blood off of my body. Is this really what my life is going to be like? Killing and running? I can feel something that feels like sadness well up inside of me when I think back to how I ran from the underground. All of those kids, dead, even though I was planning on leaving some of them behind it was never my intention to get any of them killed. It was that bitch, Mariah. She got everyone killed over some reward money.

I clench my fist when her face flashes through my mind. I swear the next time I see her I'm going to kill her. Asya wasn't supposed to die to damn it. It's all her fault, and I'm going to make sure she pays for it. I notice that I'm starting to shake uncontrollably and it's not from the cold and rain, so I get myself together and I start to think of another way out of the city. If the Government had guys set up here waiting for me there's no way they don't know about my boat. I need to get up somewhere high. Somewhere where I can fully analyze the situation. I can handle a group of at least ten soldiers, but anything above that I'm a goner.

I start to climb up the wall of a building as quickly as I possibly can. I can hear a pair of footsteps getting closer to where I am and I'd rather not draw any more attention to myself that I haven't already. When I pull myself up onto the roof there's someone else there too. Lightning crackles across the sky as he backs away from the edge of the roof.

"It's about time that you showed up." He says as he stretches his arms. "You're Hiroshi, right? The Hybrid Killer?" He asks me as he pulls a piece of paper out with my face on it.

"What's the point of asking questions that you already know the answer to." I spit back at him. He chuckles a bit as he pulls a sword out from the holster on his hip.

"Okay. Look, kid. I'm not here to play games. I've been hired by the Government to get rid of you. They're paying me a lot to bring your head in. So please just to make everything easier can you just lay back and let me do my job." He says

I'm taken aback by this. I've never had anyone say something like that to me so calmly and confidently. I can tell just by the look in his eyes that he's a killer just like me. The blade of his sword glistens as lightning crackles across the sky again.

"Who the hell are you? And why do you think you have any sort of chance in the world of killing me?" I ask him. He takes a deep breath as he starts to walk towards me.

"I guess you can call me a specialist. Where you've built your reputation on killing Hybrids. I've built mines on killing high-level Deviants. Such as yourself. In short, you can call me The Deviant Killer."

"And as far as I'm concerned. Your life is forfeit." He says calmly as he tears the scarf from around his face. I can sense a menacing aura starting to radiate off of him as I immediately get into my fighting stance.

"Wow. So eager to fight. Why's that? Is it just a natural reaction whenever you feel threatened in the slightest?" He asks me.

"Forgive me for being cautious when I see someone carrying a sword around with them. I'd rather be safe than sorry." I say to him.

I look down at my body for a second and I see that the metal on my body is slowly starting to fade away. I have about forty-five seconds to a minute tops before his ability completely wears off. That's more than enough time to kill whoever the hell this guy is and get out of this city. I start to analyze him closely to try and get a glimpse of whatever his ability is. I'd rather not be fighting this guy without some knowledge of what he can do. I guess he notices what I'm doing and he starts to laugh at me. I can feel my eye starting to twitch out of irritation as he wipes a fake tear from his eye. Is this guy really serious right now?

"Let me guess. You're waiting for me to use my ability so that you can either copy or negate it right?" He asks me. I remain silent as he nods his head. "If I take your silence as your answer then you're going to be waiting for an eternity kid.

"Why's that? You so confident in yourself that you don't think I'm worth you using it?" I ask him. He starts laughing again after I ask him that. "What the hell is so funny? You won't be laughing after I put your face through the floor."

"I assumed that you would've figured it out by now. I must give credit where credit is due. You must be pretty intelligent to have survived this long with the Government on your back, but pretty intelligent is the only compliment that I can give you. See, here's the thing about my ability. I don't have one." He says to me. The rain starts to slow down a little bit as I look at him with a confused look on my face.

"Wait. You aren't a Hybrid Or A Deviant? How is this possible? Everyone is either one of the others. The last time a normal human was born at least a thousand years ago. How have you survived this long?"

That question seems to irritate him a bit. He tightens the grip on his sword and he rushes at me before I can barely react. He swings his sword at my face and I dodge jump away from him just in the nick of time. Water splashes everywhere around me and The Deviant Killer keeps up his assault. The only thing I can do is block and dodge as the blades of his sword start to wear and tear at the metal on my arms. Sparks fly into the sky as I position my arm so that he slides down the base of it. Once the blade of his sword reaches my elbow I push it off of me and I ram my fist into his face. I can feel the bones in his nose break under my fist as he stumbles back. I dig my foot into the ground and I rush at him once again. I start swinging my fists with the intent of knocking his head off, right hook, left jab, uppercut, left hook, haymaker. He either dodges my punches completely or he blocks them with his blade.

I notice the metal that's covering my face and neck starts to wear off. I need to finish this quickly. But before I can even start to come up with a plan of escape or a way to beat this guy I can see something in his eyes change. It changes from the usual normal, calm look he's kept to the look a predator would get when it's found its prey. He quickly switches the sword from his right hand to his left and he slices at my throat with a loud grunt with all of his might. The only thing I can do is catch the blade of his sword with my hand as sparks fly everywhere once again. Even though my hand is still covered in metal blood starts to trickle down my arm as The Deviant Killer kicks me in my face sending me rolling on the ground.

"You asked me how I survived in this world!" He yells at me as he rams his fist into my face. what throws me off isn't the fact that he hit me. What surprises me is the fact that I'm actually the one that felt pain from that. "Yes, you are a Deviant, a high class one at that too. I know about your people getting gunned down and being killed in cold blood!" He yells as he slashes at my face. I quickly get my guard up but the attack never makes contact. "I hate to admit it, but even though my name does give away what I do for a living. It still does the amount of blood I have on my hands no justice. This sword carries the blood of thousands of Deviants. Blood that I've been hired to spill. It's not a job I'm particularly proud of but it's given meaning to a life that Hybrids but more often than not Deviants have looked down upon."

"Deviants looking down on Humans? I've never heard of anything like this happening." I say to him as the wound on my hand starts to bleed more profusely.

"Believe it or not I'm not killing Deviants because of some wrongdoing they did to me. To be honest I'm over it. The best revenge you could ever get on someone is by thriving and surviving regardless of whatever they throw at you, and that's what I'm doing." He says as he pulls a remote out of his pocket. "But I would be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy it a little bit."

Before I have the chance to stop him, he presses a button on the remote and my body is immediately overcome by a tremendous weight. Every bone in my body is telling me to run but for some reason, I won't move. I can feel my body starting to get heavier and heavier the longer I stand here.

"What the hell is going on? Why can't I move?!" I ask as I try to pick myself up off the ground.

"It's all apart of my plan Hiroshi. You fell right into my trap." The Deviant Killer says to me. "To explain what's going on right now basically what I've gone and done is place a giant sort of magnet directly under where you're standing. You know, to counteract the metal?"

"Wait, wait. How did you know that I would copy his ability? How did you know what his ability was? There's no way you could come up with a plan like this just by knowing what my ability was. There are too many factors to consider."

"That's where you're right Hiroshi. But how about if someone could control the factors that go into a scenario. Your powers are so reliant on what the other person can or can't do. So what if someone could control what you could or couldn't do. They could put themselves in a situation where they could plan for anything that you could possibly do with one hundred percent accuracy." He says to me as he tilts his head to the side. After he says that everything starts to click and make sense, and this realization for the first time makes me feel afraid.

"You have full control over this whole operation, don't you? From the raid on the Underground up until now. You planned everything out didn't you?" I ask him.

"So close. You gotta give me more credit than that. I'm the one who told the Government to start hanging posters of your face on the wall, and I'm the one that talked your friend Mariah into giving up your location. I handpicked the soldiers, and the Hybrid who's the ability I knew you were going to steal. I'm the one who found where your boat was and I knew that when everything went down you would head there after killing those soldiers. I knew which route you were going to take not by which would be fastest, but which route would have you fight the least amount of times." He says as he walks over to me with his sword dragging on the ground beside him. He puts the blade up to my throat as I continue to struggle to break free.

"You asked me how I survived this long. The answer is simple. I became smarter and stronger than everyone around me. I used my skills and I made a name for myself as an assassin. Someone who gets hired to kill mass murderers, pedophiles, rapists, people like that. The Government recognized my skills as an assassin and they hired me to come after you." He says to me. I'm surprised I've never heard of this guy before. I've heard whispers of some sort of Grim Reaper type person that kills criminals but I never would've thought that rumors like that would be real.

"Even though I didn't have any abilities or powers I made sure that I didn't let what I lacked define who I was Hiroshi. That's my answer, and what about you? You're probably the most dangerous man on the face of the planet and for what? Because you kill people who do you wrong? Pathetic. What's your life going to be about? Because after I kill you here what will people remember you for? Nothing. Just a murderer with a bad temper who couldn't handle being different from other people and didn't have the strength to grow stronger than the society that ridiculed him." He says as he raises his sword over my head. "I thought that you would be different Hiroshi. I thought that I would be able to relate to you on some level, but I guess that's just me being overly optimistic. Goodbye Hybrid Killer."

I can feel all of the blood in my body starting to heat up after those words leave his lips. I can just imagine the blade of his sword coming down on my neck. All of the metal has disappeared off of my body except for my right arm. so with all of my strength, I manage to lift one of my arms up, and with all of my strength l slam my fist into the ground. The roof starts to crumble around us as the Deviant Killers sword drops out of his hand. I can feel my body starting to fall as the roof and the building completely collapses underneath and then eventually on top of me. My body lands on the ground so hard that all of the air is knocked out of my lungs. I can hear the Deviant Killer yelling out as he tries to find his way out of the rubble and debris. I pick myself up off of the ground but when I start to put weight on my leg sharp pain immediately shoots throughout my leg and I collapse back onto the ground. I think I might've sprained or broken my leg in the fall. If The Deviant Killer finds me like this it is game over.

I start to crawl away, looking for a place to escape to but it's no use. I can hear police sirens starting to get closer to where I am, and the closer they get the more my anxiety rises. Smoke starts to fill the air and my lungs as my body gives out on me. I start to cough as I put my shirt over my mouth to prevent more smoke from entering my lungs. Tears start to well up in my eyes as the smoke around me starts to get thicker and thicker. My chest feels like it's getting raked by a hot knife every time I take a breath in and out. My vision starts to get blurry as I put my hand up into the sky. Is this really how I die? On a broken leg and choked out by smoke?

My life starts to flash before my eyes as I hear the blades of a helicopter start to converge on the destroyed building. I think back to what The Deviant Killer said to me. About what my life would amount to if I died today, and you know what? He was right. I wish I had the strength to rise above this society. I wish that I had the strength to do more than just kill out of fear and anger. But from how's everything looking right now it looks like I won't get the opportunity to change anything. Just as my vision starts to leave me I catch the glimpse of a ladder dropping and a pair of hands reaching out and pulling me up into the sky.

•Authors Note: "Let me know how y'all enjoyed the second chapter. How do you feel about the Deviant Killer? Do you like him? Do you dislike him? What are you looking forward to later on the story or what do you expect?"